Imagine That
by cgal120
Summary: Arthur was always a lonely child, but after meeting a sick child at the hospital he creates a companion of his own. But that can't last forever, can it? USUK M-rated


_**Imagine That**_

I never really was a social child. Throughout my first few years of existence, (of what I can remember) I was mainly left alone to fend for myself. Yes, my mother would cloth and feed me, but other than that I was left to my own devices; often becoming too adventurous in my lonely state and hurting myself.

It was times like that when I wished I had someone to talk to. Being 3 years old and having to sit in an emergency room with other children screaming around you was never fun; especially as I had a broken arm. Mum would sit in a chair far away from me, Dad never bothering to get out of the car, and I would be left on the floor with the other children; scared and lonely despite some of the other children being even sicker than I was.

With little other options, I toddled over to a tiny colourful table covered with a variety of different picture books. I picked up one with Thomas the Tank Engine on, then walked over to a set of bean bags to read. However, as I sat down I heard a squeak so turned around quickly.

"I'm so sowwy!" I said quickly and awkwardly, not wanting to upset the other child. As I looked at him closer, I saw he was blonde like me but with a funny little curl in the front of his hair.

"S'okay," he mumbled, seeming as shy as I was. I continued to look and saw a clear tube taped to his arm attached to a big metal pole with a bag a liquid on it. He looked very pale and skinny, and I felt a twinge of pity for him. Forgoing my own shyness, I sat with him carefully; making sure not to damage my arm more or knock his tube.

"Who are you?" I asked him quietly.

"My name's Matthew, Matthew Williams," he replied, an odd accent showing in his voice. He seemed to see the curious look on my face and smiled slightly. "I'm fwom Canada, but came to Engwand with my Mommy and Daddy when I was even wittler than I am now!"

I had never heard of Canada before, but grinned and nodded happily for him. "My name's Arthur Kirkland. I climbed up my Daddy's bookshelf and fell down. I broke my arm!"

"Weally?" Matthew said, looking at me in awe. "I've never climbed anything before; I've been weally sick since I was born."

Matthew then told me about the countless surgeries he had undergone, explaining that he had some rare heart condition and they were waiting for a heart donor as the only way to get rid of it would be to give him a new heart. I felt even sorrier for him, even more so when my name was called out and my mother dragged me away to have my cast put on.

After that, I had never spoken to Matthew again.

After we had gotten home from the hospital, Mum sent me up to my room without even a single kiss goodnight or a pat on the back for being so patient. I was an unwanted child and I knew it. I pushed my door shut behind me and then curled up with my bunny teddy under my covers. I cried against him, feeling absolutely hollow and alone. The only thing that got me to calm down was the thought of Matthew. The pale, tiny little boy who had talked to me and finally made me feel happiness. I knew I needed a friend like Matthew, but from my experience so far, I wasn't expecting anyone to ever like me or make happy like that.

"Hi!"

I gasped and peaked from under my covers, seeing a blonde boy with shiny blue eyes looking at me with a pearly grin on his face. He had a weird cowlick at the front of his hair, but his face…

"Matthew!" I smiled happily.

"No!" the boy pouted. "My name's not Matthew! I'm Alfwed and I'm gonna be your hewo, Arthur!"

I blinked, confused as to how he knew my name and how he'd gotten into my room. He simply smiled at me, and that seemed to be all that I needed to see.

"You'll be my friend?" I asked.

"Forever!"

And for a while, it seemed that Alfred was going to keep his promise. I spent every waking moment with me; whether we went to the stream in the back garden to watch the fishes or if it was playing with my toys and books in my room, he stayed with me.

"Come on, Alfred!" he cried happily one sunny afternoon. I ran out of the backdoor and past my mother, Alfred laughing and running by my side.

"What are you doing, Arthur?" she called to me.

"Going to the stream with Alfred!"

"Who's Alfred?"

I stopped and looked at her confused. "He's my friend," I said, pointing at him. "He's right next to me!"

She looked to my side and then smiled. "Oh, of course! Hello, Alfred!"

"Hi!" Alfred grinned, waving at my mother. I smiled and waved as we continued to run to the stream, not noticing the exasperated expression on my mother's face.

Weeks turned into months which soon became years, and I was soon celebrating my ninth birthday. At school, I had become even more isolated from everyone else but it never seemed to matter because I had Alfred with me still.

At that moment, I was sat on the kitchen side in front of my mother and father; Dad taking more pictures of my Doctor Who birthday cake than me. I glanced at Alfred as he grinned up at me and leaned on the side, chuckling as he pulled a face at my Dad.

"What's so funny, Arthur?" Mum asked.

"Just this face Alfred just pulled," I replied.

My parents exchanged glances, then covered them up before I could tell what those looks meant. They smiled at me and Alfred, telling me to make a wish and blow out my candles.

"What did you wish for, son?" Dad asked me.

"I can't say or it won't come true!" I laughed, smiling at Alfred as he knew exactly what my wish was; I wished I could stay with him forever.

A couple of days later, Mum and Dad sat me down in the living room; solemn looks on both of their faces. I thought that I was in trouble or that they were going to tell me that another of my grandparents had died, but I was slightly surprised by what they did have to say.

"Now… Arthur," Mum said. "I know that you and Alfred are very close friends, but you're nine years old now. You need to make real friends!"

"Alfred is a real friend!" I argued. "He's been more of a friend to me than all of the kids in my school."

"But, son," Dad said. "He doesn't exist."

I looked at them both for a moment before running out of the room and up into my bedroom. I hid under my covers once more as I had done that day when I was 3. I felt Alfred get under the covers with me and his arms wrap around my small frame, making me question how my parents could say he wasn't real.

Doctors started to see me after a few more days. They took me to this big building and sat me in a colourful room that contrasted so deeply with the pristine white outer walls. Each doctor told me the same thing; but with Alfred sat next to me, I couldn't say that he wasn't. He felt too real to me to just be a figment of my imagination.

I was hurt.

My parents were trying, yet again, to take away the one thing that was making me happy at that moment in time.

The therapy sessions went on for four months, and with each session Alfred started to grow fainter and fainter. I was sat on a bright blue bean bag, playing with an Action Man while I waited for the doctor to come into the room and start asking me all of the usual questions. He took a seat next to me, looking comically big on the tiny plastic chair. I chuckled quietly, but he hushed me and continued to interrogate me.

"Arthur, you must understand that it was because of your loneliness that you created Alfred," the doctor said. "And now it's time to let him go."

I looked at Alfred as he sat in the bean bag next to me; his expression was sad and he was nearly not there anymore. I didn't want him to be sad after everything that he had done for me, but keeping him there like that would only hurt him so I sighed and said the one thing I never wanted to.

"Alfred's just an imaginary friend… He doesn't exist…"

The doctor smiled and wrote my progress down on a little chart, letting me catch a glimpse of Alfred as he faded away. Instead of looking sad, he had a soft smile on his face. I sniffed, not wanting to cry in front of the doctor in case he made me stay for more therapy. He looked at me and handed me a tissue, thinking that it was simply allergies or something that was making my little nose run. I took it gratefully and wiped my nose, looking up as Mum walked into the room.

"Is he cured?" she asked.

I scowled at her for her choice of words. I wasn't some child with a disease or illness. I was a lonely child who had just had his only friend taken away.

"Yes, he is perfectly okay," the doctor smiled.

So Mum grabbed my arm and dragged me out to the car.

It was hard at first, living without Alfred. I didn't know whether I was coming or going some days. Sick of sitting in my room all day, I snuck out of the house and started wandering around the streets.

I was fairly independent for a nine year old. I wandered around the streets to the local park, sitting under a tree and watching some of the other children play. I must have started day dreaming because I soon felt a tugging on my sleeve. I turned and looked around and saw a boy with brown hair and red eyes and tiny hat on his head with ribbons. He smiled at me and I could see that his canine teeth were abnormally pointy.

"Alo," he smiled. "Would you like to come play with us?" He motioned to a group of children around my age, and I couldn't help but snigger as a brunette girl smacked a platinum blonde boy round the head with a toy frying pan.

"Sure," I said, deciding that for once I wouldn't be awkward. I soon found out that they were all in my year group, some from my school others from the rival school. I found it nice that we could all be friends despite the school's rivalry, and soon found my footing amongst them.

A few years passed and I still hung around with Dimitry. He still wore that silly little hat, but it was oddly suiting to him. We joined the magic club at school with some boy from Norway. He was quiet and didn't talk to us much, but we still got along.

I was sixteen now, and I hadn't thought about Alfred once. I was still being ignored at my house, the years getting a bit worse when my brothers came to visit or when my cousin, Francis, came over from France. Those would be the days when I would stay to be polite, but then escape and run into the woods behind my house. I'd stay out until it was late or if they came out and found me.

I guess another thing that helped me vent my feelings were writing and playing music. On my laptop (which I had paid for myself aged 13) I had countless documents for fantasy stories. Pieces of fantasy worlds that I would disappear to when I was younger. None of them included the one friend that had travelled to those worlds with me.

It was coming to the time in my education that I would graduate from my senior school and move on to college until it was time to go to university. Dimitry and I were sitting at the lunch table on our final day, talking about what we were going to do in college.

"Personally, I think you should take that literature course," Dimitry said. "I know it's A Level and that would mean either taking that and one BTEC or 3 other A Levels, but you are freakishly good at writing!"

"Thanks," I smiled. "But, writing is something that I like to do for myself. I wouldn't be able to sit in that class and listen to some strange lecturer telling me how I should express myself. I'd rather take the Media BTEC. That way it's somewhat of a challenge and I have fun at the same time."

"I guess," Dimitry nodded. "We'll have to meet up when I get back from Romania. I want to know exactly what you get on your exams. I'll bet it A*s throughout!"

I chuckled at his optimism and nodded my agreement. I was quietly confident about my results, but I needn't tell him that.

Summer was never an interesting time of year for me. For the main bulk of it, I spent my days in my bedroom. My mother and father would never pay to take me anywhere and most of my friends had gone to their home countries to visit relatives. That left me bored and alone. My results had came back as expected; top grades all around, but that didn't seem to matter to my parents. I came back from the school with the large brown envelope containing my qualifications and showed it to them, letting them look at all of the certificates that I was so proud to have received. Within 2 minutes they shoved them all back at me and carried on as they were, leaving me to wander up to my bedroom to keep them in a safe place.

Soon came my college interview on the first of September. I felt a little like Harry Potter, if I'm perfectly honest. The boy who travelled to the strange new place on his own and met the whacky but wonderful new people. My interviewer was a lovely man; he joked around with me and helped sort out my form, even going as far as giving me a sample of some of the work his students from last year had created. I was highly impressed by the quality, beaming with excitement as I couldn't wait to get stuck into the course.

Dimitry came back from Romania a little later than expected, but he met me on the interview day and we explored the college campus together, finding our way around easily. I was pleased as he had picked the same course as me, both of us finding it a little easier to knowing that we would have at least one person we could talk to.

A few days later, I said goodbye to my mother and grabbed my bag, heading out of the front door to meet Dimitry at the bus stop. We had to be in college early as our course didn't start until 9:15am, but we were okay with the slightly colder weather settling around us. We grinned and showed our passes to the bus driver, fighting our way to some seats in the middle of the bus. When we got to the college, we walked around the edge of the building, looking around at all of the cars that were pulling in and out of the car park already.

"Seriously," Dimitry said. "You're the oldest. Pass your driving test soon so we don't have to ride that freaking bus again!"

"I need fucking lessons first, idiot," I said, rolling my eyes as we walked past one of the many cafes and across the campus. We looked up at the vast amount of classrooms that were already visible, making our way through to our building and following the signs to our classroom. We found it tucked away out of sight, our lecturer, Nadine, already inside. She motioned for us to take a seat and we watched as the other pupils came inside too. Nadine walked us through a presentation fairly quickly, handing us our timetables for the year before making us sit around a table together as a group. It was time to introduce ourselves, so in turn we listened to what everyone had to say. We had to say our name, whether we'd taken Media before and an interesting fact about ourselves. After 9 people it was my turn.

"Uh… Hi," I said nervously. "M-my name's Arthur Kirkland. I took a Media course in school… Um… An interesting fact about me, I guess, is that I love to write. I'm particularly good at fantasies, but people often say that's because I rarely stay in reality."

The group smiled, my nerves ebbing away slowly now that my turn was done. But then it came to the turn of a boy I had never met before, but I got a very big shock.

"Hey, my name's Alfred F Jones; the F standing for Freaking awesome! Nah, I kid, it's really Franklin. You can call me Al. I've done a Media course before, and an interesting fact about me is I'm a hero!"

I looked at the overly eccentric boy closely, taking in his blonde hair, shiny blue eyes and cowlick. I was in complete shock. Alfred was my imaginary friend, yet here he sat flesh and blood in my Media class. I looked at my lap as he turned to look at me, feeling my cheeks flush slightly in embarrassment. Nadine soon let us go to an enrichment fair, something that I was more than willing to run away from.

As the weeks progressed, I soon became adjusted to my new routine; making friends in my class whilst still keeping in touch with my old ones. It was just coming up for the Christmas holidays, and we were sat in the photography class waiting for our lecturer Rachel to arrive. We were going to find out the results of our last assignment and then the details of the one we'd be starting after the holidays. My grade came back as a Distinction, which I was very pleased about, but then Rachel carried on to tell us what our assignment would be and my heart dropped.

"You will be partnered up, and the pair of you will take pictures to be edited into postcards. I've assigned you your pairs so listen up."

She then read out from a list who would be working with who, and for the first time ever I was being forced to work with that loudmouthed American that still gave me the creeps.

Alfred walked over to me, a large grin on his face. I looked up at him suspiciously, still uneasy about how he looked exactly like my old imaginary friend.

"Hey, Arthur!" he grinned. "I'm looking forward to working with you!"

"I guess I can say the same for you."

"Are you always that grumpy?"

"Oh fuck off…"

Alfred laughed at my bluntness, clapping me on the shoulder and sitting next to me. With little other to do, we started out plan for the assignment and I couldn't help but start growing quiet fond of him.

Christmas came and passed like it always did in my house and I was surprised by just how eager I was to get into college again and see Alfred. While we planned for the assignment, we hung out at break times and the more I saw him the more I started to like him. We seemed to be able to talk about anything and I was soon seeing more of him than I was Dimitry. I didn't mind though, because there was just something about Alfred that made me warm to him. I didn't know whether it was his confident smile or the way he talked about whatever interested him, but I was soon figuring out that I was just a little bit attracted to him.

For the rest of the year, I worked with Alfred in the classes, talking to him and learning more about him. He learnt about me and soon promised to see me during the summer holidays. That year I had pledged to go outside. We hung around together for hours on end, laughing and joking around. He seemed to understand me better than anyone else ever did and for that I was grateful to have one Alfred back in my life.

College soon started again and we could feel the tension in the air as we started our final year, knowing from our timetables that we would be worked a little harder than we were last year. Luckily, we had extra long break times so Alfred and I would sit out on the wall by the South car park and talk.

"You know, Al," I said. "I don't think I've ever seen you hurt."

"That was random," Alfred chuckled. "But, I'm clumsy; I just know how to fall."

"I wish I did," I muttered. "I've been in and out of hospitals since I was little."

"Really?"

"Yeah," I said. "I think the most memorable time was when I was 3 years old. I had broken my arm and my mother was simply leaving me in the waiting room to play. I met a boy about my age called Matthew. He was really nice to me, and he an IV stuck in his arm. I never saw him again after that though. He was Canadian so I figured he'd gone home."

Alfred went silent so I looked at him. "Matthew, you say? Matthew Williams?"

I blinked. "Yeah…"

"Matthew was my twin brother," Alfred said. "He died when we were 3 cos he had a really bad case of leukaemia."

"He was your brother…?"

"Describe him."

I thought back in my memories, trying to search for the face of the little boy I met only once. "Well… He had violet eyes and wavy blonde hair. He had this weird little curl sticking out of the front and was ever so shy."

"That was my brother…" Alfred said, leaning on the railing and letting the breeze blow through his hair. I put my hand carefully on his arm and moved closer to him.

"I'm so sorry, Alfred," I said. "I can't imagine losing someone that close to you…" I trailed off, thinking of my imaginary friend; it was nowhere close to losing a sibling, but that Alfred had been my only friend and losing him… I shook my head and looked at the Alfred in front of me. He had turned to look at me, and I could see concern in his eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "Do you need to sit down?"

"I'm fine, Alfred," I said softly. "I just got lost in thought."

"Oh," he said, relief showing on his face. "It's just your eyes went unfocused and you shook your head… I didn't know if anything was wrong."

I smiled softly and clapped his shoulder as he had done when we had first talked. "I'm fine." Alfred looked at me and grinned at my gesture, pulling me into a hug. I blinked and blushed, but hugged him back nonetheless; that was what I had learnt to be his normal mannerisms. "Al? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay…" he replied. "Um… I was wondering… After college today… Would you take the bus with me to see Mattie's grave…? You don't have to, of course, it's just-" "Of course I will, Alfred," I said instantly. He looked at me for a moment before hugging me tightly again. "I never got to say goodbye…"

"I haven't seen it in a few years… Mom and Dad never let me go over there…"

"We'll go after college," I said, smoothing his back. "I'll have to call my parents of course."

"C-can I stay round your's tonight? I'm only doing this cos my parents are out of town…"

"Of course, Alfred," I said, pulling away from him with a smile. "Now lets get back to class; I'll call during next break."

Alfred nodded and smiled slightly, grabbing his bag and walking back through the automatic doors with me.

An hour later we were allowed back out on a break, so Alfred and I walked back up onto the steps. He watched me as I pulled out my Blackberry, sniggering slightly and saying his iPhone was better. I flipped him off but smiled, dialling my home phone number and waiting for my mother to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mum."

"Oh. Hello, Arthur… Shouldn't you be working?"

"We've been given a break."

"Are you with that Romanian boy still?"

"Nah, Dimitry's gone to the library to do some research. I was actually calling to say I'll be home later today."

"Oh, working hard are you?"

"This is unrelated to college, Mum…" I said. "I'm going to the cemetery with my friend Alfred."

There was a long pause in which my mother seemed to take in what I was saying. I was unsurprised that she wasn't concerned about me going to the cemetery.

"Alfred?"

"Yes, Mother. Starts with an A, ends in D."

"Arthur… He's not real… We've gone over this… He wasn't real."

Alfred looked at me, seeing the change in my expression. "What's wrong?" he mouthed.

"Mum, I'm not stupid. I can tell what's real and what's not. I'll see you later," I said, hanging up on her before she could say anymore. I locked my phone and then put it in my bag, resting my head in my hands and groaning. I felt an arm around me, so looked up and saw Alfred looking at me with a concerned expression.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"My parents never pay any attention to me and it's only when they think I'm going crazy that they act like devoted parents."

"If this is about the cemetery then…" "No…" I said, sighing. "It's not. It's… You know what… Never mind… Let's just get back to class…"

I stood up and grabbed my bag, walking away before he could question me. Alfred followed me, and I knew that sooner or later there would come a moment that I would need to answer some very difficult questions.

By bus, the journey to the cemetery only last 30 minutes. Alfred and I joked around on the bus, and for a time it felt as though we were the only two people in the world. I was taking the time at each stop to take in more of his appearance. He was a very good looking boy; his jaw was strong and he had a light stubble on his face. His blue eyes were scanning the surroundings outside, and his skin was tanned and stretched perfectly over the taut muscles. I turned my head quickly as he looked back at me, a light blush on my face thinking that I had been caught staring. Once more, he put his arm around me and I couldn't help but lean against him. Finally, the bus pulled up by the cemetery so we got off of the vehicle and walked inside. I followed Alfred around the vast green gardens, looking at the browning leaves as they fell to the ground. In the centre was a large ornate pound with lots of Koi swimming around in the green water. Alfred lead me around to a small area with a lone headstone on the grass. There were no flowers, just a white bear in a clear plastic bag to protect it from the rain. I knelt down and read the writing on the marble:

_Here lies Matthew Lawrence Williams_

_4. 7. 1994 - 14. 10. 1997_

_Our beautiful baby boy, let the angels keep you safe._

I looked up at Alfred and saw him staring at the headstone and the white bear. "Is this date going by the British dialect, I gather?"

"Uh huh…"

"But… The fourteenth of October is today…"

Alfred nodded again, and this time I could see the tears forming. He turned away from me and sat down on a bench, so I stood and looked around. Nearby was a little stand, so I hurried over and bought some flowers. They were violet like Matthew's eyes. I walked over to Alfred and held them out, the American looking up at me in confusion.

"It needs brightening up," I smiled softly. "He brightened my mood when he didn't even know me. I owe him the same."

Alfred smiled slightly, watching as I laid the flowers down by the bear. I turned and looked at him, suddenly getting engulfed in a bone crushing hug. I wrapped my arms cautiously around him, closing my eyes and resting my head on his shoulder. I blushed slightly as he nuzzled me, turning my head to look at him.

"Sorry…" he muttered, moving away from me. I rolled my eyes and smiled, holding his wrist and leading him back over the bench. We sat down, and finally Alfred remembered. "So, what were you upset about earlier?"

"I… When I was younger, after I'd met Matthew, I had an imaginary friend. I was never good at making real friends, and he stayed with me from the age of 3. When I was 9, I was still seeing him so my parents sent me into therapy until he finally went away."

"That wasn't fair…"

"No, but after that I made friends with Dimitry and the others… I just missed him a lot."

"But why would your Mom go weird if you were going to the cemetery with me?"

I hesitated and looked at my lap. "His name was Alfred."

Alfred blinked. "Is that why you went funny the first time you met me?"

"Partially… It's also because you have an uncanny resemblance to him…"

"Awwwwww! That's so cute~!"

I looked up at him in surprise and saw him smiling at me. I was so confused, but at the same time I was relieved that he wasn't thinking of me as some freak that needed more therapy.

"You know," I said, a smirk growing on my face. "My mother is going to get one hell of a shock when she meets you. She's probably got the shrinks round for me already."

"I look forward to bringing your friend to life," Alfred grinned.

I laughed and shook my head, stopping abruptly and blushing as I felt Alfred's lips against my cheek. "Alfred?"

"Sorry…"

"N-no… Don't worry…" I said, holding my cheek. "Why did you kiss me?"

"W-well…" he said, blushing as bright as I was. "I-I've always thought of you as k-kinda cute… I just n-never knew how to a-approach you…"

It must have been my hormones, but I felt a sudden burst of confidence flow through me. "Well, I'd kiss you but that bear thing is staring at us."

Alfred blinked and looked at me before chuckling. "Yeah, Mattie always carried Kumajiro around with him. It seemed only fitting that he stayed with him here. But don't worry, he's too busy looking after Mattie to notice us."

I smiled as he lent forwards, closing my eyes as his face went out of focus. I didn't know whether he was just playing a prank or if this was real, but the next thing I felt was his lips brushing against my own and for once I felt like I was finally being seen.

Alfred chuckled as I fumbled with my key. The cheeky sod had just pinched my arse, so I poked my tongue out at him and opened my front door. I told him to wait as I walked through to the living room, sighing to myself as I saw Mum, Dad and the psychiatrist sitting solemnly and in silence.

"Mum? Dad?" I asked. They looked up at me, Mum standing slowly and moving over to me.

"Sit down, Arthur…" she said.

I sighed. "Mum, what's this about? Alfred and I were just about to go to my bedroom to play a video game."

"That's the thing, Son," Dad said, standing too and looking as though he was ready to subdue me at any moment. "We thought that we had sorted this Alfred problem out long ago…"

"Oh, bloody hell…" I muttered.

"Don't take that tone with us," Mum scolded.

"No, but Mum!" I started, the doctor standing also. They crowded around me, Dad taking hold of me as I struggled. "No!"

"What's going on?"

We all looked around and saw Alfred standing in the doorway, watching us with an uneasy expression.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" Dad asked.

"That is Alfred!" I snapped, breaking away from them and standing next to them. "Alfred Jones, meet my mother and father and the psychiatrist who has had a wasted journey." My parents stared dumbly at Alfred, so I took his hand and rolled my eyes. "Now if you don't mind, Alfred and I are going to play video games." I led the American out of the room, both of us listening from my bedroom to the doctor leaving and my parents talking about Alfred and I. I shut my door and looked at Alfred, grinning widely and hugging him. "That was bloody brilliant!"

Alfred laughed as he fell back against my bed, holding me against him. "I'm glad to have played my part. They looked ready to drug you!"

I kissed him. "They would have done."

Alfred kissed me back and held me close. "Well, I won't let them do anything to you anymore. Hero's promise."

I chuckled and nuzzled him. "Thank you, Alfred."

Alfred and I stayed strong through the rest of our time at college. Yes, we had our spats occasionally, but they only made us stronger. Dimitry always described us as having a special relationship and I couldn't help but agree with him. Alfred always supported me in my writing as soon as he found out about it. I let him read about the fantasy worlds I had created, encouraging me to write more about each one.

After college finished, we both got jobs and started saving. We were both going to the same university after the summer, but we still needed cash if we were going to survive. I found us a small apartment that we were going to stay in, meaning that we could both leave our homes and families behind. Alfred loved my choice. It had everything we needed and was in an ideal place; near to Matthew. We soon made it our own, decorating to our own styles and filling it with photos we'd taken of each other and trips we'd been on.

We were kept very busy in our courses, Alfred taking Media and History and myself taking English and Media. Some days, the stress would become to great and we would crash out together on the sofa in front of the television.

After we graduated, Alfred got a job as a primary school teacher; his favourite subject being History. I loved it when he came home and laid across my lap, smiling up at me and telling me about the kids he taught and some of the comments he received. I ran my fingers through his hair on one day in December, listening as he told me all about how he had taken the class of eight year olds out onto the snowy field and got them to play out a moment in World War 2.

"It was brilliant," he smiled. "They were hyper about the snow already, but when I got them to act and play the game of soccer! My God, it was fun! And when we went back to the classroom and did the little worksheet on it they got everything right!"

"That's brilliant, Love," I smiled, leaning down and kissing his grin.

As for me, I had started to publish my stories. It had taken a while, but the first book was doing very well in the sales and I was currently working on an entire children's fantasy series. I changed the names of course, but I based them on the adventures of 2 small boys. I wanted all the children, especially the lonely children like myself, to know that you could find friendship and love in the most unlikeliest of situations.

Both Alfred and I did what we could to pay the bills, and I was lucky enough to still have him by my side.

I had only tried to talk to my parents a few times since I had moved away, but like every other moment in my life they simply brushed me aside. I hadn't talked to them in 2 years. Alfred still kept in touch with his parents, and they accepted me as one of their own. With some encouragement, they started to regularly go see Matthew's grave and I was pleased to see a variety of coloured flowers accompanying Kumajiro and making the grave has bright as Matthew's personality had been.

Christmas came that year, and after opening our presents and eating our Christmas dinner, Alfred and I were laying together on the sofa face to face. The TV was on in the background, but we paid no mind to it. Alfred's hand was smoothing up and down my side and I hummed softly.

"I never in my wildest dreams would have seen myself here," I smiled, resting my head on his chest.

"What do you mean?" he asked, kissing the top of my head.

"When I was little I was always alone," I said, looking up at him softly. "I now I have you and your family, I still have Dimitry and my other friends. You've opened me up to new things, new emotions…"

"Is this your way of saying you love me?" Alfred grinned.

"Yes, Alfred," I chuckled. "I love you more than I can ever hope to express."

"I can think of a way," Alfred smiled, taking my hand and bringing it round to his back pocket. For a moment, I thought he was doing something perverted but then my fingers brushed across something velvety. I wrapped my fingers around it and pulled it out, bringing a blue velvet box into our visions. I looked up at him before opening the tiny object revealing a gold band with various emeralds around it. "I want to stay with you forever. Will you marry me?"

I teared up as I nodded slowly, feeling Alfred slip the ring onto my finger. We let the box drop to the floor as I looked at the ring on my finger, shifting to hold Alfred's face. We kissed deeply, Alfred rolling us so that he was on top of me. I felt for his shirt and pulled it off, Alfred working on mine as his mouth moved against mine in way that always made me melt. Soon, we were both in only our underwear, so I looked up at him with an expression that told him to take me into the bedroom. He did so and laid me against the bed, kissing me as he stripped us of our boxers. He prepped me before pushing into me, making me moan and hiss. I was used to this from past encounters, but each time seemed to make new feelings pour out of me. We moved together, mouths against flesh and pants and moans filling the air. I wrapped my legs around his waist, brushing my member against him and making me moan more. We released at the same time, panting each others names.

"I love you," we whispered together as we laid against the bed, smiling and entwining our fingers.

I would never have imagined myself marry anyone, male or female, but Alfred made me a new person. The imaginary one and the man I vowed to spend the rest of my life with.

_**Notes:**_

_**That didn't suck too bad did it? I'm sorry if it did, but this was an idea I was toying with for a while and this is the longest one shot I've written in first person. Feedback would be lovely. Also, Dimitry is the first name on a website that I came across that is Romanian. I just couldn't think of anything! And as for Mattie's middle name well, "**_the name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word, kanata, meaning 'village' or 'settlement'_**" so I gave him the middle name of Lawrence.**_


End file.
